Faking Venetian Plaster / Knockdown (Sort of)

Hello professionals! I was a drywall contractor (commercial) from 1988-1993 to put myself through college, since then have only done remodeling stuff on my own. So I am a bit out of style and practice, but I do have almost every drywall tool still.

My house was built in 1985, we bought it in 2004. My wife and I absolutely HATE the orange peel texture that is in portions of our house. Other parts are a knockdown texture, almost to a venetian plaster effect. It is really nice, and I want to mimic that effect through the upstairs 2 bedrooms, hallway and staircase. I attempted to mimic the texture in a small upstairs bathroom by hand. It worked pretty well but took forever! I had skim coated with slightly thinned mud on a 12" knife, then did X patterns with a 6" knife, then ran a 24" knockdown over it. Looks fairly close but the mud on the wall was a little too thick.

I am thinking that the last contractor didn't use that method, because the house isn't worth that much, it didn't look exactly the same, and it would take WAY too long. Now I figure they sprayed texture fairly thick then ran a knockdown knife over it.
So my question is how modern professionals would create that look? I have access to a small texture gun & compressor if I need it. Thank you!

Faking Venetian Plaster / Knockdown (Sort of)

If the spray is not quite heavey enough.

You can get a similar effect that will be heavier by taking the mud straight out of the box, and using a hawk and trowel(hawk, being a handle perpendicular to the 12"x12" flat surface you put the mud on). Put the mud on the hawk and flatten it out. Then use the trowel to make stipples in the mud by putting your trowel on it and pulling it back away. It will also stipple on the trowel and you can use it that way to touching in the edges. Then touch the stipples to the surfaces. Work that way for 20 to 30 minutes and then knock it down with a trowel.

Faking Venetian Plaster / Knockdown (Sort of)

Quote:

Originally Posted by redmanblackdog

If the spray is not quite heavey enough.

You can get a similar effect that will be heavier by taking the mud straight out of the box, and using a hawk and trowel(hawk, being a handle perpendicular to the 12"x12" flat surface you put the mud on). Put the mud on the hawk and flatten it out. Then use the trowel to make stipples in the mud by putting your trowel on it and pulling it back away. It will also stipple on the trowel and you can use it that way to touching in the edges. Then touch the stipples to the surfaces. Work that way for 20 to 30 minutes and then knock it down with a trowel.

I agree. there is a slight possiblity that it was sprayed on with thinner material so it grouped together easier and then was let to set up for a bit, and then flattened.